Fiction:The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt is space opera with a diverse crew of humans who encounter an old pre-wormhole, pre-alien-encounter ship with a single surviving crewmember frozen inside, a woman out of time. There’s an alien species, octopus-like with variant forms, that I found entrancing because their culture is so cleverly thought out and slowly revealed. The ship has a female captain, and there are several differently-abled characters including one with nifty cyborgian adaptations, and characters of various gender identities (of the matter-of-fact sort). There’s a lesbian romance subplot. And there is a Big Bad. It’s the best space opera I’ve read in a while, first in a new series, and I highly recommend it, especially if you like chewy worldbuilding and found families.

The Comfortable Courtesan: Being Memoirs by Clorinda Cathcart (that has been a Lady of the Town these several years) by L.A. Hall, gave me extreme delight, especially the appearances of the wombatt. They are perfect reading for the present time and state of affairs in the nation in which I live. Set in Regency England, and resembling a romantic soap opera with an enormous cast, there is really nothing else at all like this series and its portrayal of a vast array of romantic and sexual relationships. The diary format makes it great for reading in small increments of time, but carries the flow throughout with ongoing relationship issues and social puzzles to be solved, so I never hesitated to slide from one volume to the next.

Nonfiction:Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American voices, and Octavia E. Butler, edited by Rebecca Holden and Nisi Shawl, has a mixture of personal essays about Butler with academic essays about her work, interspersed with an interview of her, and a number of lovely photos. I found the academic essays chewy and delicious, and the reminiscences poignant. It still hurts that she died so young. She was just so amazing, and I grieve the work she was unable to create.

Saturday, January 13, 2018, 10:00 am, Paine
“Shape Note Sing”
Participatory sing-along (music provided). Shape Note singing may just be the easiest way to get a roomful of people blasting out gorgeous harmonies, as singing from written notes is made easier by having different shapes (e.g., circle, square, triangle, and diamond) for the different notes. We’ll try to avoid the more explicitly religious stuff—work with us; you won’t regret it!Bruce Randall [moderator]; Victoria Janssen [alto]; Marnen Laibow-Koser [tenor]; Rebecca Maxfield [treble]; David Olsen [bass]

Sunday, January 14, 2018, 8:30 am, Faneuil
“1982, The Year No One Left the Theater”
One of the greatest years in the history of genre movies, 1982 saw the release of E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, The Thing, Tron, Poltergeist, The Secret of NIMH, The Dark Crystal, Conan the Barbarian… what was in the water that led to this much concentrated awesome?Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Nomi S. Burstein; Randee Dawn; Terry Franklin; Stephen R. Wilk

Sunday, January 14, 2018, 2:30 pm, Marina 3
“Children of the Atom: X-Men and Representation”
The X-men were introduced in 1965 and took clear inspiration from the Civil Rights movement of the day. Over the years the X-Men as a metaphor for issues faced by minorities has mutated in some surprising ways. This panel will explore what the X-Men mean for modern representation, as well as our favorite story lines and characters from Marvel’s (hopefully) Merry Mutants.Victoria Janssen [moderator]; Danny Miller; Maddy Myers; Daniel Neff; Ryan Pagella

Nonfiction:An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is worth reading even if you aren’t a history buff, because it shows how very pervasive the genocide of America’s indigenous peoples is in our history and our present and our future, through things like our national myth of The Frontier, and the organization and tactics of our military, and how our country honors or subverts treaties in its own interest. It was difficult reading sometimes, as you might expect, but important. The “suggested reading” section is an excellent resource.

Fiction:The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks was a long-ago recommendation from a friend that turned out to be not really for me. If you like complex political situations and moral ambiguity in your fantasy, this might be for you. I was not in the mood for fiction that came perilously close to fetishizing poverty and offered little hope of escape even after physical escape.

[rant] By “fetishizing poverty” I mean the sort of book in which the whole goal is for the hero to escape poverty, but before he or she does, the author lingeringly dwells on the horrible things that happen on the Bad Side of Town amid the middens and gutters and rampant syphilitic prostitution. You know the kind of book I mean? The ones in which poor people never seem to have families who love and support them whether by birth or otherwise (except maybe ambiguous families of child thieves or brothels), and never have the comfort of religion or spirituality, and never just, you know, work long hours in a factory that’s exhausting but actually pretty okay in order to feed their families. There’s endless hopelessness in fetishized poverty, which of course can be true of real poverty, but in this type of fiction it feels almost gloating, and the idea seems to be you can only get out if you’re Chosen, or Special, or willing to kill/steal from/con people. And even if that’s a realistic view, I don’t want to read about it. [/rant]

I accidentally skipped the third Penric novella and read Penric’s Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold, which ends on a semi-cliffhanger that’s continued in volumes five and six, it looks like. I am enjoying this series because Bujold and fascinating worldbuilding; I really love all the implications and explorations of a human sharing a body with an incorporeal being. It’s like Star Trek’s Trill, except with magic powers and no slug!

I also read Counterpunch by Aleksandr Voinov, m/m romance that I’d received as a galley some time ago. I think I’d requested it because it was about a boxer, but it turned out it was set mostly in an alternate England, roughly contemporary with ours, that is hampered by legal slavery for criminals and apparently also by inheritance. I don’t like that sort of thing in fiction, but I skimmed through anyway out of curiosity. There was not enough detail to convince me that world would really have developed as it did, but the slavery was clearly meant as backdrop, so probably those who like this flavor of d/s are reading for other reasons. I was amused to note that there’s an in-story news article about how the economics of slavery are terrible, so I guess the author shared my disbelief to some extent. I did like reading about the boxing matches, though, since I didn’t know much about that sport beyond seeing Creed.

The Name in the Mouth by Rave is a really interesting story tying together the idea of golems with a Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier who is Jewish, and it’s so excellent and beautifully written. It made me think.

His mother told him the story about the golem. He thought. One of the stories. There were different versions.

He wrote down the parts he could remember, the way he was writing down everything else.

The story went: a holy man shaped the golem from river clay. Or from wooden hinges bent together. Or hammered metal. Or a doctor sewed it from parts of corpses.

It was shaped like a man. But it was stronger. You could not mistake it for flesh and blood.

It was a tool with hands. It was a box with nothing inside.

It was to protect them. Or to work for them. Or because the doctor wanted to know if it could be done.

Nonfiction:In War’s Dark Shadow: The Russians before the Great War by W. Bruce Lincoln took me a year or more to finish. This book is from the 1980s, when it was a big deal that Lincoln had actually been to the U.S.S.R. for research. I had known very little about Russian history, so it was as good a starting place as any. I now know that labor strife has a long and storied history in Russia, and how the peasant farmer commune system worked very badly for a very long time, and that the Russians were really, really unprepared to enter into World War One. I also learned about the Russo-Japanese war, which I’d like to read more about some day.

Fiction:The Course of Honour by Avoliot is original m/m romance fiction on AO3 – features arranged marriages, treaties, gaslighting (in the past), and political intrigue.

I obtained and read a galley of Dragon Blood by Eileen Wilks, out in January 2018. The previous volume in the series, which I’d read on vacation back in August, ends on a cliffhanger, so this was a real relief! As usual with this series, the book left some plot threads dangling and opened up some new ones, but the cliffhanger wasn’t as maddening as the previous one.

I’ve stuck with this series for so long because of the ongoing, ever-evolving relationship between Lily Yu and Rule Turner, the abundance of interesting continuing secondary characters, and the incredible depth and complexity of the worldbuilding. The series contains one of the few insta-mate-bond setups I’ve ever liked, because it causes more tension and complications for the protagonists rather than fewer.

For the most part, I’ve preferred the books in this series that happen on Earth rather than those in the series in other dimensions, like this one; that’s because I love reading about an Earth where magic has returned in a big way, and has to be dealt with by people and governments. Laws and social interactions and balances of international power and even technology are all changed by magic, and the characters have to figure out what to do about it. That grounded aspect is my favorite aspect of the Lupi series. And like previous books in the series, in this one the characters consider the results of their actions, both good and bad; they must weigh necessity versus degrees of harm, and deal with their emotions about the harm they inevitably cause.

Another plus is that Dragon Blood focuses mostly on female characters, including the awesome Grandmother Yu Li Lei as a point of view character.

Though I don’t think the previous book would be a good starting place for a reader new to the series, this one might be. Just be warned that the plot is driven by children in jeopardy; you don’t actually see them in jeopardy until close to the end, though, and things work out okay.

Penric and the Shaman: Penric and Desdemona Book 2 by Lois McMaster Bujold mostly made me want more, because it introduced a lot of really cool concepts relating to a different sort of magic, and I wanted to see those played out more. It was fine as a novella, but could easily have been expanded to a novel and made me happier for longer.

Comics:Hawkeye: Kate Bishop Vol. 1: Anchor Points featured a guest appearance from Jessica Jones; there were also art references to the Matt Fraction/David Aja Hawkeye series, and some elements of the tone of that comic, as well. Kate is working in California as a private detective with no money, and trying to locate her father. She makes some friends, who don’t yet have a lot of depth. I will probably check out the second volume.

Black Widow Vol. 3: Last Days has gorgeously autumnal art and a sad story of Natasha Romanov as a child in the Red Room interwoven with a science fictional organization that wants to control the future. There is also Surprise!Winter Soldier; his appearance is brief, though.

She-Hulk Vol. 1: Deconstructed was decidedly not like the old She-Hulk comics, which tended to have a lot of humor. Post-Civil War II, and the death of Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters is grieving and recovering from injury and trying to return to work as a lawyer, while struggling with her transformations. I don’t think I’ll go on with this series right now, as I’m not in the mood for this type of recovery story just now.

Fanfiction:The Con Job by Anaquana adorably crosses over my Leverage OT3 with Captain America. And it starts at a comic con. And there are costumes. So cute.

Beyond Belief by thingswithwings crosses over Agent Carter with Wonder Woman, and there is action, and lesbian shenanigans, and heading off into the sunset together. More like this, please.

White Rabbit by Domenika Marzione (domarzione) was an extremely long X-Men (comicsverse) gen story focusing on Alex Summers/Havok as he tries to leave superheroing and go to grad school in geology. The timeline has other ideas, but he also gets married and gets to go to mutant kid birthday parties. And then Things Happen. It has a happy ending.

A Contest of Stories by alby_mangroves, hansbekhart, and Scappodaqui is one of the best Captain America WWII AUs I’ve ever read. It begins with Bucky having been used as a test subject by Arnim Zola, but his rescue and subsequent fate is very, very different. Steve Rogers never got a super soldier serum, and is instead working as an artist of camouflage and misdirection for the army in Europe. Each of the Howling Commandoes gets some characterization, and some are point of view characters. It was so nice to read fanfiction that was unpredictable.

Not every worthy novel or short story is noticed in time to be nominated for a Hugo, Nebula, or World Fantasy Award. Come discuss recent works which are definitely worth a read even though you haven’t heard people talking about them…yet.

The “traditional” pattern of characters getting together romantically tends to go from discovering mutual interest to holding hands to kissing to some form of sex. But what if you have a character who is averse to any or all of these things? Or is physically incapable of them? How do you show your readers that a relationship has reached its climax when there isn’t a literal one involved?

Whether you’re writing Space Opera or High Fantasy, how your characters get from place to place can bring a lot of distinction to your world, and help bring your readers deeper into its thrall. Conversely, inconsistent or unrealistic travel times can throw your readers out of the story. Let’s talk about how to keep your narrative’s pace and your character’s pace moving in sync no matter the mode.

“Doctor Who: End of an Era, Beginning of a New One”Saturday, October 7, 10:00 AMRockville/Potomac
Moffatt’s era ends and Chibnall’s era begins. What did we think of the Capaldi era, and Clara and Bill as companions? What do we want from Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor? What are our hopes for Chibnall as showrunner? What do we think of the Moffatt era vs. the Davies era?Victoria Janssen, A.C. Wise, Hildy Silverman, Vanessa Phin [moderator]

“75 Years of Wonder Woman”Saturday, October 7, 3:00 PMRockville/Potomac
It’s been 75 years since Wonder Woman first appeared in Sensation Comics Issue #1. In that time she’s been in comic books, animated tv shows, a live action tv show, and the recent extremely popular movie starring Gal Gadot. Panelists discuss the character and her interpretation over the years.Fran Wilde, Janine Spendlove, Victoria Janssen [moderator], Jeanne Adams

“Octavia Butler”Saturday, October 7, 6:00 PMBoardroom
Twelfth Planet Press has just published Luminescent Threads. While a more prolific novelist than short story writer, her short fiction, such as “Bloodchild,” continues to be discussed to this day. Panelists will discuss the late Octavia Butler’s ongoing influence on the field.Victoria Janssen [moderator], B. Sharise Moore, L. H. Moore, Sarah Pinsker, K. Ceres Wright

Nonfiction:Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction by John Rieder is highly recommended if if you’re at all interested in the subject. This book helped me make/clarify a plethora of mental connections between colonialism and Social Darwinism and racism and various types of early science fiction, from “undiscovered lands” adventures like H. Rider Haggard stories to time travel to alien invasions to dystopias. I’m going to keep this one, as it will likely reward re-reading.

Though Theoharis was unable to obtain access to a large store of Parks’ papers due to legal issues, she used as many other sources as possible to document Parks’ lifetime of activism. Since that is exactly the focus I wanted, I enjoyed this a lot. I feel it gives a great picture of Parks’ views and activism throughout her life, and how she interacted with activists and organizations, and the various lowkey internecine conflicts that had to be dealt with as well as attacks from outside the movement. It’s also a picture of how women in the civil rights movement often did a lot of work for very little reward, and shows some of the social class aspects that operated within the larger organizations like the NAACP. Now I want to read a book on Parks that includes work on the personal papers that have recently become available: The papers of Rosa Parks (1913-2005)span the years 1866-2006, with the bulk of the material dating from 1955 to 2000. The collection, which contains approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division, documents many aspects of Parks’s private life and public activism on behalf of civil rights for African Americans. The collection is on loan to the Library for ten years through the generosity of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The Library of Congress received the materials in late 2014, formally opened them to researchers in the Library’s reading rooms in February 2015, and now has digitized them for optimal access by the public.

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman by Anne Helen Petersen is a series of essays on various “non-conforming” female public figures from Serena Williams to Caitlyn Jenner. Each essay shows how perceptions of their public personas interact with American cultural norms and the backlash that ensues. I liked that each chapter focused on a different type of non-conformity. It was a fast, entertaining read, though I did bristle at one passing reference to “Harlequin romances,” a phrase which appeared to be used as metonymy for the Romance genre. Really, honey?

From the introduction: this book considers the costs and benefits of smoothing one’s sharp edges just enough to make it onto the cover of Vanity Fair or into the pages of GQ, multiplexes across America, or the White House–and the implication that unruliness is still largely the provenance of women who are white and straight.

Favorite quote: It’s one thing to argue that you belong–it’s another thing to actually believe it. As [Jennifer] Weiner’s experience makes clear, part of the difficult, essential work of unruliness is shaking the status quo so thoroughly, so persistently, so loudly that everyone–even the very women behind that agitation, many of whom have internalized the understandings they fight so tirelessly against–can see their value within it.

The Supergirls: Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines (Revised and Updated) by Mike Madrid traces the history of female superheroes from the earliest days of comics to the present. The social history is fairly shallow, but if you’re looking for an overview of the topic and a host of characters to research in more depth, you could do worse. Caveat: it’s full of observations such as Thorn was as tough as they came, but dressed in a green leather halter-top and micro miniskirt with thigh high boots, she looked more like the entertainer at a bachelor party than the terror of the underworld.

I’d originally picked up Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction, edited by Isiah Lavender, for the essay about Octavia Butler’s short story “The Evening and the Morning and the Night,” but the essay I found most rewarding was “Questing for an Indigenous Future: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony as Indigenous Science Fiction” by Patrick B. Sharp, as it described and connected some historical events of which I’d been ignorant when I read the novel, and which added quite a bit of depth to my understanding of it.

“Monteiro Lobato’s O Presidente Negro (The Black President): Eugenics and the Corporate State in Brazil” by M. Elizabeth Ginway, “Mestizaje and Heterotopia in Ernest Hogan’s High Aztech” by Lysa M. Rivera, and “Virtual Reality at the Border of Migration, Race, and Labor” by Matthew Goodwin all brought me new insights and new information. High Aztech was a DNF for me back when it was new, so I’m glad I got to read about it from another perspective.

Fiction:
Warning, Dragon Spawn by Eileen Wilks ends on a cliffhanger, and the next book isn’t out until January 2018. This one is thirteenth? I think? in this urban fantasy series, that I’ve been reading since the beginning. There’s plenty of reminders about previous continuity, but I wouldn’t recommend starting here. The plot gets really complicated, really fast, and the stakes keep rising. I do recommend the series, though, especially as an example of focusing on a single romantic relationship through multiple books, and a really good take on the drawbacks as well as advantages of a paranormal “mate bond.”

Fiction:All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells was so very fun and I wanted it to be so much longer. She’s an autobuy author for me, because her characterization is so very, very good and emotionally involving. There were also some great explorations of what makes a person and the potential evils of corporations, which are less moral than the supposedly moral-less beings they own.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch was engrossing and satisfying. I hope this trend of More! Guleed! continues. I am loving Tyburn as a character and hope to see more of her.

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch was, alas, much shorter than I had hoped. Abigail was so great! I want all the Abigail stories!!!

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard was more depressing than I was in the mood for, but did have the virtue of making me homesick for Vietnam, a place I’ve never been. There’s a lot going on about privilege and colonialism and autonomy and change.

See, there were positive sides to a House. But of course there were. Of course there would be good people like her, like Laure—within Silverspires, within Hawthorn—even within House Draken, where Theophraste the tailor had been kind, and sorry to see the Annamite troops drafted in the war, and made his best effort to cut them uniforms with flowing patterns like those on Annamite silk, and handed them scraps of cloth they could use as blankets against the killing cold. It hadn’t changed a thing. Such people’s lives were richer, easier because of the House system. And in turn, the House system existed only because such kind, gentle people kept pledging themselves to it and strengthening it from within. They were all complicit, without exception. And so was Isabelle. “What threatens the House?”

I think if you like Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Creature Court books, you’ll like this (and vice versa); they had a similar tone to me, great powers losing their power and trying to deal with that.

Coincidentally, the themes of the de Bodard had some echoes in the Fowler book I read next.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler has been on my TBR since before it came out. I think I’d call this literary fiction rather than specific. TW for primates in labs. It’s about families, and how we think about families, and also about animals and how humans relate to them, how we treat each other, and what that says about us both. I was especially struck by the themes intersecting with my thoughts about the current American healthcare debate between those who think it’s about money and those who think it’s about people.

“We need a sort of reverse mirror test. Some way to identify those species smart enough to see themselves when they look at someone else. Bonus points for how far out the chain you can go. Double bonus for those who get all the way to insects.”

Once, she’d given me a raisin for every raisin she’d eaten, and now she had two poker chips and was giving me one. Two interesting behaviors–that was as far as Dad could go. Here is what I’d thought it meant. I’d thought Fern was apologizing. When you feel bad, I feel bad, is what I got from that red chip. We’re the same, you and I. My sister, Fern. In the whole wide world, my only red poker chip.

The NotSame was this: Like a chair or a car or a television, Fern could be bought and sold. The whole time she was living in the farmhouse with us as part of our family, the whole time she was keeping herself busy being our sister and daughter, she was, in fact, the property of Indiana University.

Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee is more straightforwardly comprehensible than Ninefox Gambit, but still had lots of wonderfully weird worldbuilding and characters with complex motivations. Plus, there were a couple of moments where I said, “Whoa. Wow,” which I will not spoil here. Two books in, I still think this is one of the most creative science fiction worlds I’ve read in a long while.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss is about monsters and about women, and how they can be the same thing. I think if you like Karen Joy Fowler’s work, you might like this, and also if you love meta and revisionist tales and/or things set in Victorian England and relating to the stories of the nineteenth century. Goss works with female creations of fictional scientists (or hypothetical female creations/daughters) from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne (which I have not read). Also, Holmes and Watson are in it, because of course they are. But overall, this is a meta novel, periodically festooned with commentary from the female characters about themselves, their stories, how their stories are told, and the idea of what a novel should be and how it should be written. And besides all that, it was fun.

Court of Fives by Kate Elliott was too nerve-wracking and painful for me to read right now; I finished it, but the sequels will definitely have to wait. The race and class issues were very well-depicted, I thought, and the suspense was excellent. I am just too stressed about the world to handle this sort of thing in fiction right now.

I was happily surprised that Apprentice in Death by J.D. Robb, 43rd in the series, was much better than several of the previous volumes. There were a lot of twists and barriers to solving the mystery, capturing the perpetrators, and bringing them to justice, and remarkably little checking in with the huge recurring cast, which can become tedious. I read this partly because mysteries are comforting (justice wins!) and partly for purposes of analysis.

Comics:Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 3: I just can’t fully express how good this series has been. I mean, I know Ta-Nehisi Coates has other things to write than comics, but I wish he could do maybe just five more graphic novels. This whole Black Panther series has been a festival of nuance and moral complexity, and I just want to hug it, when it’s not making me cry for its contrast to our current American political climate. Also, Shuri Shuri Shuri.

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda by Chelsea Cain is really one last delightful issue of this run of the Mockingbird solo series with some extra Avengers issues to plump it up. That said, that one final issue, featuring a Geek Cruise and corgis and costumes, was terrific fun.

Fanfiction:
A friend recommended Break Down In the Shape of Things to Come by shaenie which is a White Collar/reboot!Star Trek crossover set at Starfleet Academy after Vulcan is destroyed. I really liked it because Peter Burke was so immaculately perfect as a starship captain. Neal Caffrey is a half-Vulcan cadet raised among humans, and there is accidental telepathic bonding and eventual slash, but even if you’re not into that, it was a lot of fun just as a Trek story about what to do when a huge chunk of your spaceforce has been killed all at once. Recommended.

There May Be Some Collateral Damage by metisket is a Bleach/Harry Potter crossover, which I think would work if you have zero knowledge of Bleach, but a little knowledge of the anime is probably better. The casual, humorous narrative voice carried me through at high speed, enjoying every minute of this What You Need is a Shinigami story.

Thursday July 13, 2017, 8:00 PM, Room 5
“How to Moderate a Panel”Alex Jablokow, Victoria Janssen (leader), Kathleen Jennings, Tom Purdom, Kenneth Schneyer.
The moderator plays a crucial role in making panels run smoothly and enjoyably for participants and attendees. This panel will cover how to get questions rather than comments from audience members, how to deal with a panelist who goes off the rails, and how to make sure everyone gets equal time, among many other topics.

Friday July 14, 2017, 11:00 AM, BH
“Recent Non-Fiction Book Club: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly”Teri Clarke, Gwynne Garfinkle, Victoria Janssen, Emily Wagner.
Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the black women of Langley’s West Computing group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. Starting in World War II and moving through the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the space race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances, and used their intellect to change their own lives and their country’s future. Join us to discuss this excellent book, the history it chronicles, and its implications for historical, present-day, and futuristic SF.

Friday July 14, 2017, 3:00 PM, BH
“Classic YA Book Club: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper”Victoria Janssen (leader), Sandra Kasturi, Miriam Newman, Sonya Taaffe, Tamara Vardomskaya.
Will Stanton discovers on his 11th birthday that he is no mere boy. He is the Sign-Seeker, last of the immortal Old Ones, destined to battle the powers of evil that trouble the land. His task is monumental: he must find and guard the six great Signs of the Light, which, when joined, will create a force strong enough to match and perhaps overcome that of the Dark. Embarking on this endeavor is dangerous as well as deeply rewarding, Will must work within a continuum of time and space much broader than he ever imagined. Susan Cooper creates a world where the conflict between good and evil reaches epic proportions. She ranks with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in her ability to deliver a moral vision in the context of breathtaking adventure. We are especially interested in discussing this book in conjunction with the recent YA book club selection, The Raven Boys.

Friday July 14, 2017, 8:00 PM, 6
“What Fiction Gets Wrong About Archeology and How to Dig Up the Truth”Judith Berman, Tom Greene, Jeff Hecht, Victoria Janssen (leader), Robert Killheffer.
We’ve all read fiction by authors who seem to have gotten their understanding of archeology from an episode of Ancient Aliens, so how can we do better? We’ll discuss current best practices in archeology and art history, resources for curious authors, and, if there’s time, what exactly is wrong with ancient astronaut theory. (So, so wrong.)

Saturday July 15, 2017, 10:00 AM, BH
“We Have Always Lived with the Magic.”Phenderson Clark, Greer Gilman, Victoria Janssen (leader), Kate Nepveu, Naomi Novik.
Guest of Honor Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books take a slow and clever approach to a common issue with alt-historical fantasy: if magic has always existed, why have historical events gone essentially the same way that they did in our magicless world? Her focus on the familiar territory of Western Europe during the Napoleonic Wars gradually broadens to include other regions that look very different. This panel will examine this and other techniques for integrating magic into history, including using the appearance or reappearance of magic as a timeline divergence point, limiting magic or paranormal entities to a particular region of the world, portraying paranormal communities or magic-users as hidden and secretive, and entirely reinventing history from the Neanderthals on up.